Ashes of Dreams
by Azhdah
Summary: AU Sequel to "From the Sea of Souls" - Jay begins a whole new adventure in a world millennia apart from his own. A world of chakra, jutsu, and oh yeah... A megalomaniacal power hording psychopath hell-bent on controlling everything on the planet. Yeah, sounds familiar.


**A/N:** Baaah, so I had a story rolling around again involving Jay from my Fullmetal Alchemist fic "From the Sea of Souls" and I decided to write it out cuz WHYNAWT?! This is a possible AU sequel with a much older Jay in the Narutoverse with very very minor crossover elements, which is why I won't be putting it into the Crossover section of the site...

Anywho, let me know what you think!

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Ashes of Dreams

By: Azhdah

Prologue: Immortal Regis

xXx

A young king sits upon a ruined throne, hands clasped before his lips as if in prayer or maybe contemplation, as violet eyes stared over his shambled court to the crumbling doors at its end. The halls are yawningly empty of life, the guards and staff having been sent away to save themselves and their children from the coming storm. Earth rumbles beneath his feet and he could hear the winds howling through the holes in the roof, the occasional flash of lightning heralding the rolling thunder.

Clad in armor gilded in gold, a warrior stood by the king's side. A stern chin and narrowed eye indicative of a man on duty, gauntlet adorned hand clasped firmly over the hilt of a broadsword. White wisps of hair on a grayed beard display the man's age and experience, only adding to the regal appearance that a white cloak and eagle helm bestow upon him.

In contrast, the king appears downright bored, in what one would think a man should be on high alert for such a situation. Instead, his eyes are half lidded, with the posture of his body slouching in an almost lazy manner. He is modestly adorned and in a style that is not at all similar to the knight. A bare chest and stomach displays taut muscles between the open lapels of a black trench coat, while tight leather pants and boots complete the ensemble. The only jewelry he wears being a black pendant with a dragon motif, its open maw clenching a blood red stone in its jaws. Indeed, the king's clothes do not seem to fit this era and only add to the mystique that surrounds him.

A violet eye languidly swerves to put the knight in its line of sight, the pupil contracting thinly like a cat as the light of the nearest brazier reflects off the man's armor. "The Demon is coming," The king stated conversationally, his voice echoing despite his almost whispered words, "I would suggest you retreat and save yourself Captain Orrin. She will show no mercy to opposition."

"I'm sorry... But I must refuse my lord." Came the gruff barking reply of the knight, his voice gravelly from so many years of use, "It is my duty to stay by your side no matter the circumstances, twas my father's work and my father's father. I would be doing my ancestors a great shame if I abandoned you, my king."

The king sighed and bowed his head slightly so that his hands covered his eyes, "I swear you humans can be overly dramatic." He grumbled, before lifting his eyes again to give a level stare at the man standing beside him, "I've lived for millennia Captain, the rise and fall of civilizations are the tides to my oceans. People come before me like a breath of wind before being swept away again. For me, time has no meaning. Walls crumble. Earth shifts. Cities fall around me. Yet I remain..." Trailing off the king cast his eyes around the court, as if in emphasis before focusing on the knight. "And in time, people return and discover my existence, giving me things that I don't need, until before I can protest a city is built around me. From Pilgrim to Saint to King to God, it all leads to the same end."

Sliding his eyes back to the entryway, the king resumed his position, "So ask yourself, Captain... What's more valuable? The fleeting life of man or an immortal who does nothing?"

Orrin took a breath as if to speak but a loud resounding knock halted his movements and he frowned at the entryway. His frown deepened when he heard the king murmur, "It appears we have a guest, shall we answer the door?"

_'He almost sounds amused...'_ The Captain wondered, glancing askance at his king to see that there was indeed a half smirk gracing the man's handsome features. Jagged shark-like teeth peeking behind thin lips. "So it seems..." Orrin muttered, dark eyes darting back toward the doors as another set of knocks echoed, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.

"Enter." Called the king, his voice hardly loud but still managing to somehow fill the room. With a click and groan the doors began to open slowly, before being blasted out by a strong gale.

A feminine figure stood in the corridor, long white hair billowing about her elegantly along with the sleeves of her distinctly foreign robes. She strode forward in a regal manner, her head held high with her hair daintily trailing behind her when the wind finally died. Her features were nearly alien and the word "pale" came to mind when describing this woman. Slanted eyes held wide white irises with no pupil, with two pale spots on her brow that could have been eyebrows. A thin line in the middle of her forehead added to the oddity that was her face, but what was most distracting of all were the perfectly formed white horns that sprouted out of the top of her head, her hair naturally falling around it.

When she drew close to the throne's steps, Captain Orrin stepped forth and barked, "Halt!" The alien woman came to an abrupt stop and slowly arched her head to look at the knight, "You are standing before the Regis of the Hoarfrost Peaks, Black Dragon of the West, and King of Fire. What business do you have here, stranger?"

Briefly, thick veins sprouted around the woman's eyes and the Captain got a distinct feeling that she was looking right through him. But her eyes slipped aside and she took a moment to admire her surroundings, "This... is the Hall of the Mountain King?" She voiced seductively, a finger with a long black nail scraping the engravings on a pillar, "I thought it would be... bigger."

"Mmm... that's what they all say." The king uttered mischievously, his inhuman eyes tracing the graceful being's movements in what could be perceived as a lustful manner, "But it's not what you have that's important, it's how you use it to bring out the final... _result._"

Captain Orrin looked at his king oddly, while the pale woman leaned back from her investigations of the pillar, "I see... And what does a Nameless King have for me?" She asked innocently, her soulless eyes gazing into his own.

The King grinned ferally, his jagged teeth splitting his face nearly in two, "Skipping the foreplay are we?" He growled deeply, before leaning back and resting in a semi reclined position on his stone throne, leg crossed over another, "And I thought I could play this game a little while longer... Why don't _you_ tell me what you want Ootsutsuki Kaguya, I don't just give things away."

"I want you." She stated plainly, floating toward him with absolute disinterest in the knight who unsheathed his weapon. "I want your power." Kaguya whispered, settling herself before the King and tracing a nail along his upraised knee, "You are the only being in this world that I cannot effect..." Leaning forward, the pale woman gazed longingly into his violet eyes and cupped his cheek like she would a lover, "I traveled to this remote place to see you myself, because I could not move you to me."

"Ohh..." Cooed the King, an expression of pity and remorse playing across his face as he mocked her, "Poor you. Having to come here all by yourself just to visit little old me." He caught and twirled several strands of her hair before she could fully lean back, his shit-eating grin returning, "Such a burden it must be to have something not in your complete control, how tragic that must be for the Messiah of the world."

Unamused, Kaguya stared down at him, her lithe form towering over his, "I see you've heard of me." She said, her voice flat and without inflection; clearly becoming annoyed at this so-called "King's" behavior.

Chuckling, the King twisted the hair in his palm into an ugly knot without taking his eyes from the woman's, "Of course I have." He stated flippantly, letting go of her tangled hair with a flourish and enjoying the way her brow twinged as it join the rest of her perfect locks. "Kaguya the Princess. Kaguya the Messiah. The Rabbit Goddess. The Demon. The Egoist. The Lunatic. I've heard it all, lady fair, and to be quite frank you've got power out the asshole, you don't need any of mine."

Kaguya's beautiful serene face became ugly and she snarled at the King, her hair moving to wrap around his form. "You _will_ give me your power! ALL POWER BELONGS TO ME!" She screamed, the ground shaking in her wrath as she enveloped the King like a spider. Captain Orrin leapt forward, sword raised and cut through a part of the mad woman's hair, earning a shriek of rage before being pummeled down by the sharp strands. A strangled cough being all that was heard in his last moments.

A resigned sigh was heard on the stone throne, "And I was just beginning to like you..."

Red lightning crackled in the hair cocoon and a dark clawed hand shot out to clench Kaguya's throat earning a strangled cry from the woman. Black fire snaked through openings in the hair and quickly burned it away, revealing the King in a completely transformed state. Black metal covered the man head to toe like a second skin, his mouth a jagged maw that exuded heat every time he took a breath. Eyes that were once violet were molten red with the once white sclera now an inky black. Large red markings covered parts of the exposed skin in a node-like pattern, while a shadow fire sprouted up from his shoulders and over his scalp in a mock idea of hair.

Pointed ears pricked forward as he spoke, the tusks on his lower jaw baring menacingly every time he opened his mouth, "There's a reason they call me the Black Dragon..." The King rumbled, his voice akin to the grinding of a mountain. He tossed her down the stairs where she crumpled in a heap, choking around the charred handprint on her throat. Following after her, the King descended the stairs at a sedate pace, the stone behind him melting. "I don't use this mutant energy that you've crafted, this Chakra or whatever you've come to call it. My power is far more ancient and deadlier than you could possibly comprehend..."

He crouched over her, watching with interest as her wounds healed, "I can assure you Kaguya that you will fall." The King uttered deeply, the sounds thrumming in his torso, "You will fall just like all the great beings of this world have fallen and it will come from within, just as it always has. That which you covet will come and destroy you."

"So live..." Hissed the King, standing up and glaring down at the wide eyed woman, "Live and find your misery. Build your hell. And when I return, I will show you the Truth that befits all mortal creatures. You will scream for your hell then."

Striding away, the King walked to a pair of stone doors that hadn't been there before... It was floating some few centimeters off the ground, the symbol engraved upon the surface that of twin snakes intertwining a staff with wings cresting the top. With just a touch of his palm the doors opened to an inky blackness that seemed to reach for the man with grasping tendrils. Turning, the King looked back at Kaguya and smiled handsomely, his face returned to its original fleshy state. "And just so you know... my name is Jay."

With a hollow slam the stone doors closed and vanished without a trace, leaving Kaguya alone in the empty court.

xXx

_Once there were trees full of birds.  
Meadowlands vibrant with flowers.  
Carefree the songs our children once sang  
Gilding our minutes and hours  
Clouds came and covered the sun,  
The breath of the baleful unease  
Turning to ashes flowers in their fields  
Silenced the birds in their trees_

_Hidden so deep in veils of deceit,  
Imprisoned in twisting spells-  
Are we the plaything of fiends, or merely the dreams  
That we're telling ourselves, telling ourselves?_

_Strive till the phantoms are broken,  
Fight till the battle is done;  
The squadrons of night  
Can't conquer the day,  
Nor shadows extinguish the sun._

_Stories of danger, fearless attack,  
Specters of plague and pain.  
All of these ghosts of our own delusions come back  
And we'll be haunted again, haunted again._

_For tho the storms are over and past,  
Though the thunder's rage is quieted at last  
Well this nightmare's laid me down in the rags here to mourn,  
Here to mourn.  
The night has left us crippled with grief  
As we strive to keep alive our belief,  
But a loss so great, it clouds all our hopes for the dawn._

_Hidden so deep in veils of deceit,  
Imprisoned in twisting spells-  
Are we the plaything of fiends, or merely the dreams  
That we're telling ourselves, telling our-_

_Stories of danger, fearless attack,  
Specters of plague and pain.  
All of these ghosts of our own delusions are back  
Have we been fighting in vain? Fighting in vain?_

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**A/N:** I imagine when Jay transforms he sounds a little like Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug. :}

Also, this has got to be the first time that I've written a woefully overpowered character from the get go... Even though in the original he's not this powerful, I get the feeling that with time and age power will come to a long lived entity. I don't exactly know where this will take me, but sometimes I think it feels good to have a power trip with your characters.

If you've got any questions or anything you'd like to point out, let me know and I'll work with it accordingly.

Until next time!


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